Out with the hounds...

At weekends, Michael White, principal of St Mary's National School in Ballygunner, Co Waterford, wears another hat. During the winter months, when Sunday comes around, he dons a black velvet peaked cap, a pair of strong boots, an all-weather green jacket and white trousers and he heads for the hills.

He is former chief whip of the Waterford Beagle Club, and a current club committee member. Every Sunday during the winter, he is out with the club following the beagles, hunting hares.

"Beagles," he explains, "are small hounds, 18 inches high, they hunt hares in a pack." The sport, he argues, "is very healthy - it's active and we kill very, very little. Far more hares are killed on the road each year."

The club's history dates back to 1927. "I had an uncle who beagled. He took me out with him when I was a child. I beagled first from the bar of his bike when I was six or seven - that was in the late Fifties. Then I didn't return to it until I came back to Waterford to teach."

Today, the whole family is involved, he says. "It's a wonderful thing for anybody, particularly for somebody who is in all the time in the winter from dawn 'til dusk.

"You get to know the whole natural environment in all weathers. You go over fields, hedges, ditches, through rivers if they're not too deep. We go wherever the hares go.

"Usually, the hare is far too cute for the hounds. We haven't killed a hare for two years - it's one of the safest animals in the parish when we go out. Hares are very intelligent and they will know the countryside far better than the hounds. The sport is watching the hounds following the scent - and us trying to keep up with them."

This passion, he says, has given him "an appreciation of the natural world and a knowledge of the environment, our traditions and a knowledge of local history . . . I've seen every old stone in the county and every ruin between here and Dungarvan."

White is an administrative principal of a school with over 430 pupils. After a week at school, he says the weekly hunt keeps him fit and active. Running over the countryside with the support of farmers is a great pastime. "Some of the farmers come out too," he says.

The master, who must run with the beagles, has to wear the club's uniform - a hunting cravat, a black peaked cap, a green jacket and white trousers. The leader is accompanied by two others who wear the same gear. To keep up, however, these three must be fit and fast, says White, who still leads the hunt from time to time.

The club does not attract many problems with anti-blood sport groups, he says, the kill is so small.

White has now taken on a new role, in addition to beagling and teaching - he is national chairman of the steering committee of the UN Year of Older People.